The Elements of Style THE ELEMENTS OF Style BY WILLIAM STRUNK Jr With Revisions, an Introduction, and a Chapter on Writing BY E.B.WHITE F O U R T H E D I T I O N New York San Francisco Boston London Toronto Sydney Tokyo Singapore Madrid Mexico City Munich Paris Cape Town Hong Kong Montreal COPYRIGHT © 2000,1979, ALLYN & BACON A Pearson Education Company Needham Heights, Massachusetts 02494 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher Earlier editions © 1959, 1972 by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc The Introduction originally appeared, in slightly different form, in The New Yorker, and was copyrighted in 1957 by The New Yorker Magazine, Inc The Elements of Style, Revised Edition, by William Strunk Jr and Edward A Tenney, copyright 1935 by Oliver Strunk Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Strunk, William, 1869-1946 The elements of style / by William Strunk, Jr ; with revisions, an introduction, and a chapter on writing by E B White — 4th ed p cm Includes index ISBN 0-205-30902-X (paperback) — ISBN 0-205-31342-6 (casebound) English language—Rhetoric English language—Style Report writing I White, E B (Elwyn Brooks), 1899- II Title PE1408.S772 1999 808'.042—dc21 99-16419 CIP PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 10 04 03 02 Contents FOREWORD INTRODUCTION I ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding s In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas Place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause Do not join independent clauses with a comma Do not break sentences in two Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an appositive, an amplification, or an illustrative quotation Use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption and to announce a long appositive or summary The number of the subject determines the number of the verb 10 Use the proper case of pronoun ix xiii 1 2 5 7 9 11 vij CONTENTS 11 A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject II ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION 12 Choose a suitable design and hold to it 13 Make the paragraph the unit of composition 14 Use the active voice 15 Put statements in positive form 16 Use definite, specific, concrete language 17 Omit needless words 18 Avoid a succession of loose sentences 19 Express coordinate ideas in similar form 20 Keep related words together 21 In summaries, keep to one tense 22 Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end 13 15 15 15 18 19 21 23 25 26 28 31 32 III A FEW MATTERS OF FORM 34 IV WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY MISUSED 39 V AN APPROACH TO STYLE (With a List of Reminders) 10 Place yourself in the background Write in a way that comes naturally Work from a suitable design Write with nouns and verbs Revise and rewrite Do not overwrite Do not overstate Avoid the use of qualifiers Do not affect a breezy manner Use orthodox spelling 66 70 70 70 71 72 72 73 73 73 74 GLOSSARY [91 conjunction A word that joins words, phrases, clauses, or sentences The coordinating conjunctions, and, but, or, nor, yet, so, for, join grammatically equivalent elements Correlative conjunctions (both, and; either, or; neither, nor) join the same kinds of elements contraction A shortened form of a word or group of words: can't for cannot; they're for they are correlative expression See conjunction dependent clause A group of words that includes a subject and verb but is subordinate to an independent clause in a sentence Dependent clauses begin with either a subordinating conjunction, such as if, because, since, or a relative pronoun, such as who, which, that When it gets dark, we'll find a restaurant that has music direct object A noun or pronoun that receives the action of a transitive verb Pearson publishes books gerund The -ing form of a verb that functions as a noun: Hiking is good exercise She was praised for her playing indefinite pronoun A pronoun that refers to an unspecified person (anybody) or thing (something) independent clause A group of words with a subject and verb that can stand alone as a sentence Raccoons steal food indirect object A noun or pronoun that indicates to whom or for whom, to what or for what the action of a transitive verb is performed I asked her a question Ed gave the door a kick infinitive/split infinitive In the present tense, a verb phrase consisting of to followed by the base form of the verb (to write) A split infinitive occurs when one or more words separate to and the verb (to boldly go) intransitive verb A verb that does not take a direct object His nerve failed 92] THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE linking verb A verb that joins the subject of a sentence to its complement Professor Chapman is a philosophy teacher They were ecstatic loose sentence A sentence that begins with the main idea and then attaches modifiers, qualifiers, and additional details: He was determined to succeed, with or without the promotion he was hoping for and in spite of the difficulties he was confronting at every turn main clause An independent clause, which can stand alone as a grammatically complete sentence Grammarians quibble modal auxiliaries Any of the verbs that combine with the main verb to express necessity (must), obligation (should), permission (may), probability (might), possibility (could), ability (can), or tentativeness (would) Mary might wash the car modifier A word or phrase that qualifies, describes, or limits the meaning of a word, phrase, or clause Frayed ribbon, dancing flowers, worldly wisdom nominative pronoun A pronoun that functions as a subject or a subject complement: I, we, you, he, she, it, they, who nonrestrictive modifier A phrase or clause that does not limit or restrict the essential meaning of the element it modifies My youngest niece, who lives in Ann Arbor, is a magazine editor noun A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea Most nouns have a plural form and a possessive form Carol; the park; the cup; democracy number A feature of nouns, pronouns, and a few verbs, referring to singular or plural A subject and its corresponding verb must be consistent in number; a pronoun should agree in number with its antecedent A solo flute plays; two oboes join in GLOSSARY [93 object The noun or pronoun that completes a prepositional phrase or the meaning of a transitive verb (See also direct object, indirect object, andpreposition ) Frost offered his audience a poetic performance they would likely never forget participial phrase A present or past participle with accompanying modifiers, objects, or complements The buzzards, circling with sinister determination, squawked loudly participle A verbal that functions as an adjective Present participles end in -ing (brimming); past participles typically end in -d or -ed (injured) or -en (broken) but may appear in other forms (brought, been, gone) periodic sentence A sentence that expresses the main idea at the end With or without their parents' consent, and whether or not they receive the assignment relocation they requested, they are determined to get married phrase A group of related words that functions as a unit but lacks a subject, a verb, or both Without the resources to continue possessive The case of nouns and pronouns that indicates ownership or possession (Harold's, ours, mine) predicate The verb and its related words in a clause or sentence The predicate expresses what the subject does, experiences, or is Birds^Jt/ The partygoers celebrated wildly for a long time preposition A word that relates its object (a noun, pronoun, or -ing verb form) to another word in the sentence She is the leader o/our group We opened the door by picking the lock She went out the window prepositional phrase A group of words consisting of a preposition, its object, and any of the object's modifiers Georgia on my mind 94] THE ELEMENTS principal verb or sentence OF STYLE The predicating verb in a main clause pronominal possessive Possessive pronouns such as hers, its, and theirs proper noun The name of a particular person (Frank Sinatra), place (Boston), or thing (Moby Dick) Proper nouns are capitalized Common nouns name classes of people (singers), places (cities), or things (books) and are not capitalized relative clause A clause introduced by a relative pronoun, such as who, which, that, or by a relative adverb, such as where, when, why relative pronoun A pronoun that connects a dependent clause to a main clause in a sentence: who, whom, whose, which, that, what, whoever, whomever, whichever, and whatever restrictive term, element, clause A phrase or clause that limits the essential meaning of the sentence element it modifies or identifies Professional athletes who perform exceptionally should earn stratospheric salaries Since there are no commas before and after the italicized clause, the italicized clause is restrictive and suggests that only those athletes who perform exceptionally are entitled to such salaries If commas were added before who and after exceptionally, the clause would be nonrestrictive and would suggest that all professional athletes should receive stratospheric salaries sentence fragment A group of words that is not grammatically a complete sentence but is punctuated as one: Because it mattered greatly subject The noun or pronoun that indicates what a sentence is about, and which the principal verb of a sentence elaborates The new Steven Spielberg movie is a box office hit GLOSSARY [95 subordinate clause A clause dependent on the main clause in a sentence After we finish our work, we will go out for dinner syntax The order or arrangement of words in a sentence Syntax may exhibit parallelism (I came, I saw, I conquered), inversion (Whose woods these are I think I know), or other formal characteristics tense The time of a verb's action or state of being, such as past, present, or future Saw, see, will see transition A word or group of words that aids coherence in writing by showing the connections between ideas William Carlos Williams was influenced by the poetry of Walt Whitman Moreover, Williams s emphasis on the present and the immediacy of the ordinary represented a rejection of the poetic stance and style of his contemporary T S Eliot In addition, Williams s poetry transitive verb A verb that requires a direct object to complete its meaning: They washed their new car An intransitive verb does not require an object to complete its meaning: The audience laughed Many verbs can be both: The wind blew furiously My car blew a gasket verb A word or group of words that expresses the action or indicates the state of being of the subject Verbs activate sentences verbal A verb form that functions in a sentence as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb rather than as a principal verb Thinking can be fun An embroidered handkerchief (See also gerund, infinitive, and participle.) voice The attribute of a verb that indicates whether its subject is active (Janet played the guitar) or passive (The guitar was played by Janet) Glossary prepared by Robert DiYanni Index a/an in parallel construction 27 in titles 38 abbreviations punctuation of and writing style 80-81 accordingly, semicolon with active voice 18—19 adjectival modifier 12 adjective(s) compound, hyphen in 34-35 and writing style 71 adverb(s) awkward 75-76 sparing use of 75 adverbial phrase 44 advertising, language of 81-82 affect vs effect 45 aggravate vs irritate 39 agreement, subject-verb 9-11 all right 39 Allingham, William 71 allude 40 allusion vs illusion 40 almost vs most 53 along these lines 52 alternate vs alternative 40 among vs between 40 and comma before 5, loose sentences with 25 parallelism with 27 subjects joined by 10 while as substitute for 63 and/or, misuse of 40 Anglo-Saxon vs Latin 77 antecedent(s) position in sentence 29-30 anticipate vs expect 40-41 anybody vs any body 41 pronoun after 60 anyone vs any one 41 apostrophe, use of appositive introductory 13 position in sentence 30 pronoun as 12 punctuation of 4-5, article(s) in parallel construction 27 in titles 38 as comma before vs like 51-52, 82 98] THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE as good or better than 41 as regards 49 as to whether 41 as well as, subjects joined by 10 as yet 41 attributives, in dialogue 31, 75,76 auxiliary verb(s) 20 modal 20 being, misuse of 41, 56 besides, semicolon with between vs among 40 both and, parallelism with 27 breezy style 73-74 brevity See concise writing business, language of 82-83 business firms, names of but comma before loose sentences with 25 use of 41-42 while as substitute for 63 can vs may 42 sparing use of 20 care less, misuse of 42 case of pronouns 11-13 case (noun), misuse of 42 certainly 42 character, misuse of 42 claim (verb) 42-43 clarity in writing 79 clause(s) punctuation of 3—7 restrictive vs nonrestrictive 3-5, 59 clever 43 colloquialism(s) 34 colon, use of 7-8 comma(s) with abbreviations in compound sentence 6-7 before conjunction 5,6 in dates - with parenthetical expressions - vs period with quotations 36 serial compare to vs compare with 43 comparisons case of pronoun in 12 than in 59 complement inverted position of 33 in periodic sentence 32 composed of vs divided into 44 composition, principles of 15-33 compound adjective, hyphen in 34-35 compound sentence comma in 6-7 semicolon in 5-6 compound subject verb form after 10 comprise 43 concise writing 23-24 active voice and 18-19 positive statements and 19-20 concrete language 21-23 conditional verbs 20 conjunction(s) comma with 5, loose sentences with 25 parallelism with 27 INDEX consider vs considered as 43 contact (verb) 43 contraction vs possessive coordinating conjunctions comma with 5, loose sentences with 25 cope with 44 correlative conjunctions comma with parallelism with 27 could, sparing use of 20 currently, misuse of 44 dash, use of data 44 dates numerals vs words for 35 punctuation of 2-3 degrees (academic), punctuation of dependent clause punctuation of design 15,70-71 details, reporting 21-22 dialect 78-79 dialogue adverbs in 75 attributives in 31, 75, 76 dates and numbers in 35 paragraphing of 16 sentence fragment in tense in 31 different than, misuse of 44 direct address, name or title in direct object 36 disinterested vs uninterested 44 divided into vs composed of 44 due to 44-45 [99 each pronoun after 60 verb form after 10 each and every one 45 eccentric vs standard language 81-84 effect vs affect 45 e.g., punctuation of either, verb form after 10 either or, parallel construction with 27 elude vs allude 40 emphatic word/expression position in sentence 32-33 as sentence fragment enormity 45 enthuse, misuse of 45 enumeration, comma in etc 45-i6 punctuation of every, compound subject qualified by 10 everybody vs every body 41 pronoun after 60 verb form after 10 everyone pronoun after 60 verb form after 10 except, subjects joined by 10 exclamations 34 expect vs anticipate 40-41 facility 46 fact 46 (the) fact is 60 (the) fact that 24 factor 46 fancy words, avoiding 76—78 farther vs further 46 Faulkner, William 68 feature 47 lOO] THE ELEMENTS fewer vs less 51 figures of speech 80 finalize 47, 82, 83 first , second , third, parallelism with 27 firstly , secondly thirdly, misuse of 57 fix (verb) 47 flammable 47 folk 47 for, comma before 5, for conscience' sake foreign words 81 form, principles of 34-38 Forster, E M., 25-26 fortuitous 47 Frost, Robert 68-69 funny 50 further vs farther 46 gerund vs participle 13, 55-56 possessive case with 12 get 48 Gibbs, Wolcott 83 gratuitous 48 have got 48 he is a man who 48 he or she, avoiding 60-61 he said, in dialogue 31, 75, 76 headings 34 Hemingway, Ernest 68 hopefully 48 however 48—49 hyphen 34-35 I vs myself 12 i.e., punctuation of illusion vs allusion 40 imitation, in writing 70 imply vs infer 49 OF STYLE importantly, misuse of 49 in addition to, subjects joined by 10 in regard to 49 in terms of 50 in the last analysis 49 indefinite pronouns possessive case of independent clause(s) colon after 7-8 comma before conjunction introducing comma separating 6-7 semicolon separating 5-6 indirect discourse, tense in 31 indirect object 89 infer vs imply 49 infinitive split 58, 78 inside of 49 insightful 50 interesting 50 intransitive verb 44, 51 introductory phrase participial 13-14 punctuation of irregardless, misuse of 50 irritate vs aggravate 39 it's vs its -ize 50 Jr., punctuation of kind of 51,62 Latin vs Anglo-Saxon 77 lay 51 leave vs let 51 lend vs loan 52 less vs fewer 51 let vs leave 51 lie vs lay 51 INDEX like vs as 51-52, 82 Lincoln, Abraham 77 linking verb(s) agreement with subject 11 literal/literally 52 little 73 loan vs lend 52 logical predicate 32 loose sentence(s) 25-26 -ly, awkward use of 75-76 main clause punctuation of 5-7 statement supplementing mannerisms 17,42 margins 35 may vs can 42 sparing use of 20 meaningful 53 memento 53 metaphor, use of 80 might, sparing use of 20 modal auxiliaries sparing use of 20 modifier(s) adjectival 12 position of 30-31 most vs almost 53 myself vs I 12 names (of firms), comma in names (of persons) in direct address possessive case of nature 53 nauseous vs nauseated 53 needless words, omitting 23-24 [lOl negative statements, avoiding 19-20 neither, verb form after 10 nice 53 no less than, subjects joined by 10 nobody vs no body 41 verb form after 10 nominative pronoun 12 none, verb form after 10 nonrestrictive clause 59 punctuation of 3-5 nor comma before vs or 53-54 not, misuse of 19-20 not but, parallel construction with 27 not only but also, parallel construction with 27 noun(s) in apposition See appositive possessive case of used as verb 54 and writing style 71-72 number of verb 9-11 numerals 35 object direct 36 indirect 89 pronoun as 11, 12 object complements inverted position of 33 in periodic sentence 32 offputting 54 one 54-55 one of, verb form after 9-10 one of the most 55 ongoing 54 102] THE ELEMENTS opinion, injecting in writing 79-80 or in and/or 40 comma before vs nor 53—54 oral vs verbal 63 -oriented 55 Orwell, George 22-23 overstatement 73 overwriting 72 Paine, Thomas 67 paragraphs 15-17 parallel construction 26-28 parentheses 36 references in 37 parenthetical expressions 2-5 partially vs partly 55 participial phrase introductory 13-14 punctuation of 4-5 participle as verbal 13, 55-56 passive voice 18 past tense, in indirect discourse 31 people 56 period vs comma periodic sentence effectiveness of 32 vs loose sentence 25, 26 personal pronouns case of 11-13 after each/every 60 personalize 56 personally 56 persons 56 phrase adverbial 44 participial 4-5, 13-14 prepositional 13-14 OF STYLE positive statements 19-20 possess 56—57 possessive apostrophe in with gerund 12 with participle 55-56 pronominal of pronouns 12 before titles 38 predicate logical 32 preposition(s) at end of sentence 77-78 in parallel construction 27 prepositional phrase at beginning of sentence 13-14 present participle, as verbal 13, 55-56 present tense, in summaries 31 presently 57 prestigious 57 pretty 73 principal verb 29 pronominal possessive pronoun(s) antecedent of 29, 60 case of 11-13 after each/every 60 indefinite nominative 12 relative 29 proper nouns in direct address possessive case of proverbial expressions 37 qualifiers, avoiding 73 quotation(s) 36-37 colon introducing INDEX quotation marks for colloquialisms 34 punctuation with 36 rather 73 refer vs allude 40 references 37 regard as 41 regretful vs regrettable 57 relate, misuse of 57 relative clause following one of 9-10 position in sentence 30 punctuation of relative pronoun position in sentence 29 repeated action, expressing 64-65 respective/respectively 57 restrictive clause 59 punctuation of 4—5 restrictive term of identification revising 72 -'s, use of said, in dialogue 31, 75,76 secondly, misuse of 57 semicolon in compound sentence 5-6 while replaced by 63 sentence fragment sentence structure 28-31 emphatic 32-33 prepositions in 77-78 serial comma shall vs will 58 should, sparing use of 20 similes, use of 80 so 58 [lO3 somebody pronoun after 60 vs some body 41 someone pronoun after 60 verb form after 10 sort of 51 specific language 16-23 spelling 74-75 Spencer, Herbert 22 split infinitive 58, 78 Stafford, Jean - 2 standard English 83-84 state (verb) 58 Stevenson, Robert Louis 84-85 structural design 15, 70-71 student body 58 style 66-69,84-85 guidelines for 70-84 subject(s) agreement with verb 9—11 compound 10 emphatic position of 33 position in sentence 29 pronoun as 11-12 subject complements inverted position of 33 subordinate clause punctuation of summaries 31-32 superfluous words/phrases 23-24, 72 syllabication 38 syntax 28-31 inversion 32-33 parallelism 26-28 tense in summaries 31-32 than case of pronoun after 12 use of 59 104] THE ELEMENTS thanking you in advance 59 that omitting 78 quotations introduced by 37 redundant use of 48 vs which 59 the in parallel construction 27 in titles 38 the fact is 60 the fact that 24 the foreseeable future 59 the truth is 60 then, semicolon with there is/are, substituting 18-19 therefore, semicolon with they vs he/she 60-61 thirdly, misuse of 57 this, ambiguous reference 61 thrust 61 thus, semicolon with time, notation of titles (of persons), punctuation of titles (of works) 8,38 together with, subjects joined by 10 tortuous vs torturous 62 transition sentences of 16-17 transitive verb(s) 44, 51 and vigorous writing 18-19 transpire 62 (the) truth is 60 try to vs try and 62 type vs kind of 62 OF STYLE uninterested vs disinterested 44 unique 62 update 82,83 us, as appositive 12 utilize vs use 63 verb(s) agreement with subject 9-11 auxiliary 20 coining with -ize 50 intransitive 44,51 linking 11 position in sentence 29 principal 29 transitive 18-19 used as noun 54 and writing style 71-72 verbal(s) gerund as 12, 55-56 participle as 13, 55-56 verbal vs oral 63 very 63, 73 voice, active 18-19 when clause introduced by in loose sentences 25 where clause introduced by in loose sentences 25 which ambiguity in use of 30 clause introduced by in loose sentences 25 vs that 59 which was 24 while comma before in loose sentences 25 use of 63-64 Whitman, Walt 69 INDEX who clause introduced by following one of 9-10 in loose sentences 25 redundant use of 48 vs whom who is 24 will vs shall 58 -wise 64, 67 with, subjects joined by 10 Wolfe, Thomas 67-68 word division 38 word order 28—31 for emphasis 32-33 [lO5 wordiness, avoiding 23—24, 72 worth while/worthwhile 64 would for repeated action 64-65 sparing use of 20 writing benefits of 70 difficulties with 69 ear for 77-78 principles of 15-33 style of 66-85 yet 41 you vs yourself 12 ... the course was a slim volume called The Elements of Style, whose author was the professor himself The year was 1919 The book was known on the campus in those days as "the little book," with the. .. preserve the flavor of his discontent while slightly enlarging the scope of the discussion The Elements of Style does not pretend to survey the whole field Rather it proposes to give in brief space the. .. for the dramatists of the Restoration The first would be the preferred form in a paragraph on the dramatists of the Restoration, the second in a paragraph on the tastes of modern readers The